


Too Busy to Run

by Winterling42



Series: Ravnica Days [2]
Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Canon Related, First Meetings, Gen, Literal Run-in, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 10:45:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8099203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winterling42/pseuds/Winterling42
Summary: The Gatewatch spent three months on Ravnica before plot-important things started happening again. This is one day from those three months.Chandra's busy exploring her new digs while Jace locks himself in his office to do paperwork all day, Nissa hides on the roof, Gideon punches things for fun, and Liliana. Well. Does whatever Liliana wants. If no one else is going to have fun on Ravnica, Chandra's willing to go it alone. She runs into trouble one day, and has a conversation with him.





	

Chandra made it all the way to the entrance hall before anyone called after her. This time it was one of Jace’s minders, a woman in ornately inscribed armor asking something about forms. Chandra had trouble listening to the detail-oriented Azorius guards on the best of days, and today she caught about one word in ten. Since all of those had to do with rules about what she could and couldn’t do, Chandra paid them about as much mind as she would a wind blowing.

“Sorrycan’tstaybusydon’tworryaboutmeI’llbebackbydark.” Chandra turned and jogged backward into the door, waving in what she hoped was a reassuring kind of way.

She turned around just in time to run face-first into a wall of blue and red silk. The wall said, “Oomph,” very loudly and only barely managed to stop both of them from falling down the steps.

The wall turned out to be a tall-ish man with a gauntlet on one arm that almost reminded Chandra of her own vent pack. She blinked at it, and then up at him, and demanded, “Who are you?” at the same time he did. Chandra felt her eyes narrow, her glare matched by the one he was giving her.

“I asked first,” she said, still glaring. He was obviously wearing some kind of uniform, and that meant he was part of one of the guilds that dominated Ravnican power-structures, and _that_ meant he was Jace’s problem, not hers.

But she was curious about his gauntlet anyway.

“What did you want to see the Guildpact about?” the guildmage asked instead of answering, and Chandra snorted.

“Do I look like one of Jace’s petitioners to you?” She waved a hand towards the seemingly endless line of people here to see the Guildpact. Or, more accurately, to file the right permits to see the Guildpact. Chandra shuddered.

“Noooo,” the guildmage drawled. “You wouldn’t be another one of his Gatewatch, would you?”

“ _His_ Gatewatch!” Chandra’s indignant yelp drew the attention of several pedestrians, and she bit her lip to stop herself from shouting again. “I’m one of _the_ Gatewatch, sure. But how would you know about–“ Abruptly she realized that the only reason she’d run into him to begin with was because he _wasn’t_ waiting in line to file permits. He was walking up to the side door, the one that Chandra and the others used precisely because there weren’t hordes of people wanting attention around it. “Who _are_ you?”

The guildmage smirked and swept his arms out in a theatrical bow. “Izzet guildmage Ral Zarek, at your service,” he said mockingly. Standing up, he reached out to tap her nose, leaving behind a little spark of lightning that made Chandra jerk away and sneeze. “Are you always this talkative with strangers?”

“Only ones I don’t like.” She thought that, for some reason, the comeback wasn’t as meaningful when she had to sneeze again afterwards. “Izzet, right? Aren’t you the guys Jace is always complaining about blowing stuff up?”

Ral’s smirk, if possible, got even wider. “That’s us. You haven’t been on Ravnica long, have you?”

“Just a couple of weeks.” Chandra rubbed vigorously at her nose to get rid of the itch. She glared up at Ral and wondered how _much_ fire would be a suitable payback. A sudden suspicion crept into her thoughts as his words sank beneath the surface. _You haven’t been on Ravnica long…_ “Why?”

Ral glanced at the door behind her, his thoughts ticking along almost as fast as hers did, if his face was anything to go by. “Oh, I just thought I might show you around. If you’re not to busy gatewatch-ing.”

Chandra stuck out her tongue, both to the idea of using ‘gatewatch’ as a verb and to someone in a _uniform_ taking her anywhere. “I’ll be fine,” she said, and added pointedly, “Thanks.”

He made a point of twiddling with dials on the side of his gauntlet, which Chandra definitely was not interested in looking at. “I guess I’ll go in then,” Ral said, raising an eyebrow at her, and Chandra felt her cheeks heating. It wouldn’t be long before her hair burst into fire whether or not she wanted it to or not.

Chandra took the steps three at a time, shaking her head furiously and slowing down only once there was a crowd and two buildings between her and Zarek. “What an idiot.”

Maybe if he stuck around Jace’s offices she could figure out how to show the Izzet a good boom spell, guildless style.

**Author's Note:**

> I guess this is a series I'm writing now. Okay, cool. Anybody have any requests for Ravnican characters they'd like to meet the Gatewatch?
> 
> join me on [tumblr!](hoard-smelter.tumblr.com)


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